Who’s Harry? He’s a horse. As the story goes, the original owners bet on Harry, who had 50-to-1 odds, and Harry won. With the money, they opened up the restaurant. It is said to be haunted by a female ghost said to be either a woman who perished in a 1887 fire or Catalina, a 1700s resident whose name was used for the restaurant’s previous incarnation. Her apparition has been seen walking briskly throughout the place in a white gown, and she sometimes appears in a mirror in the ladies’ restroom. Her perfume also has been detected, and poltergeist activity has been witnessed here as well.

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Comments (4)

Just spent a weekend in St Augustine with my husband. One night we decided to have dinner at this restaurant and my husband tells me “someone just touched me”. I looked around us and there were no customers or staff anywhere near us at the moment. He just kept saying how eerie and real it felt but he felt someone touch his side as if passing by. This doesn’t match any accounts of the paranormal activities seen here but wanted to mention it.

On a visit almost two years ago, I stopped into Harry’s to have lunch. Just as I was walking out of the bathroom stall, the paper towel dispenser fed a sheet but I was nowhere near the sensor. I thought it was odd because you have to place your hand directly in front of the sensor for the paper towel to work. Later, while I was waiting for my meal, I took a picture of the upstairs dining area. A few days later while I was looking through the photos I noticed what seems to be an apparition of a woman from the outside looking in. I knew about a ghost named Catalina that haunts the place and I did a Google search to see if I can find a picture of her online. I didn’t find a picture but I did read a little history about her family that once lived there. In the description I read that she’s often seen peering through the windows.

The first time I went to Harry’s, when I was 9 or 10, I decided to brave the Catalina’s domain. I went to the restroom. I could see inside all of the stalls, as the doors were ajar, and I realized I was completely alone. I knew it was now or never; if I wanted to find out whether or not Catalina was indeed haunting the place, I had to ask her while we were alone together. Quietly, shyly, staring into one of the ornate mirrors above the room’s sinks, I managed to get out the question that had been turning over in my mind. “Is anyone in here?” I asked. Just then, very clearly, I heard a woman’s voice right next to my ear, saying “I am”.

I went back when we were in town again. I was 12 or 13, and the second floor was closed this time since we were at the restaurant for lunch instead of dinner. Our waiter, Lance, had been interviewed several times for books about the subject of this particular ghost as he’d had several experiences with her. I was a little star struck meeting him, as I’d read about him in the book where I originally learned about Catalina, back when I was 9 or 10. I gushed to him for a few minutes, and, after I told him about my previous encounter with Catalina, he kindly allowed me to go upstairs to use that bathroom. When I reached the top of the stairs, I knew this experience would already be somewhat different than the previous time, as there was a ghost hunting pub crawl standing at the bar just outside Catalina’s space. As I entered the bathroom, I was once again completely alone, though I could hear the voice of the tour guide through the door, telling Catalina’s story. Feeling a little more confident this time around, I decided to bait her. I knew Catalina did not like when ladies behaved improperly; she’d even supposedly slapped a girl once for swearing in the bathroom, so I started swearing, acting like I’d gotten into a fight with someone and was blowing off steam. As I continued to spew profanities, I very suddenly felt a hand slide into my hair, grab a section of it, and pull hard. It was startling enough that I bolted from the bathroom, past the ghost tour, and ran back downstairs to the table where my mother and best friend were waiting for me. Without any context, the first thing they asked me was “what happened to your hair?” A section of my hair was pulled away from its normal placement and sitting very oddly, as if someone had grabbed it and tugged it in an unnatural direction.

We went on a haunted tour, who only briefly mentioned Catalina among the stops. I love the restaurant and decided I would venture to the women’s restroom to see if she wanted to show up.

My sister and I were told that she appears in the restroom, and does not seem to like profanity. A women once reported she was on her cell phone having a heated conversation when the phone was “slapped” from her grip. I learned this space was believed to be her bedroom at a time.

I just thought, how terrible for a spirit lingering to watch their bedroom become a bathroom! So I suggested to my sister, that we go, sit down (there are chairs in there) and have a family and women related type of conversation.

While we watched our words carefully, I just steadily snapped pictures of the Room. All around just keep clicking the camera.

I wish I had the image of the floor before she appeared, so you could see the difference in the light hitting the floor just seconds before, but she appeared next to us through the light of the window 🙂 I was honored

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